WOVEN STRUCTURES UPDATE - Part 7

7.A - Offset Knotting: Where and
Why?

Although offset knotting in rugs or bags
has sometimes been noted in passing,
there has rarely been much
discussion of reasons for the feature or its possible use in making
attributions. On these pages,
we have posted examples from around the
rug-producing areas so that they can be examined and compared.

Jaf Kurd bags
from western Persia (right), offer the most familiar
examples of offset knotting. Since each rug knot is tied on two warps,
it is easy for a weaver to stagger knots in successive rows. In this way
she
makes steeper and smoother diagonals, as shown in the diagram. Each
design "step," normally the width of one knot, is reduced to
the size of a half knot. Because offset knots are a disadvantage where
straight verticals are desired, however, the weaver of this bag produced
the diamond lattice-work field with offset knots, the border with knots
aligned vertically in normal fashion.

In this instance, the weaver offset her knotting to copy a common kilim
and brocade motif in pile. Unlike the large hooked figures featured
on classic central or western Anatolian kilims, those woven by Kurds in both Eastern Anatolia and across the borders in Iraq and western
Iran were made with
smaller pattern units. To copy intricate tapestry motifs with normally aligned
knotting would result in awkward, spindly latch-hook arms with steps
proportionately too large along two sides. By offsetting knots, the Kurdish weaver made
narrow stems only the width of two knots -- yet where properly articulated,
stems that are smooth- edged and clear.

Actually, we don't have to speculate on the development of the Jaf
patterning above, as immediate predecessors exist. The identical motif
appears in some of the purest reciprocal brocading of
Eastern Anatolia -- work produced by both Kurds and others. In the brocaded chuval at the right, pairs of two-warp
design units were offset consistently. The placement of these two-warp
units could be copied precisely with offset knots. (See Tracking the Archetype for
a discussion of the slit-tapestry origins of this kind of hooked motif.)

We are usually quick to attach Jaf labels to knotted-pile bags displaying
offset knotting along with hooked
motifs in lattice arrangements; yet the weavings vary enough in their materials and color palettes to raise
questions about such automatic attributions. The piece of Jerry
Silverman's shown below was the topic of a Turkotek discussion a few months
ago (Salon
61), but the group came to no definite conclusions as to its
origin. This bag
combines an
offset knotted-pile hooked lattice motif of the Jaf variety with a soumak section
featuring a motif rarely seen in Kurdish work.

Knotted pile and soumak bag face. Jerry
Silverman.

The motif in the Jaf bag below, and in detail at the right, is certainly
close
to that in the piece of undetermined provenance above. This version of
the small hooked medallion surely evolved directly from slit-tapestry kilim
patterning. Every element in the field is formed with diagonals, and all
of the knotting is offset. Because this weave has nearly twice the
number of knots vertically as horizontally, only when knots were offset
could smooth, steep diagonals be produced. The same is true of the first Jaf
example above.

Jaf Kurd bag face. Daniel
Deschuyteneer.

For an excellent discussion of Jaf bags, see "Diamonds in the
Pile," by Mark Hopkins, in the June/July 1989 issue of Oriental
Rug Review, pp. 6-12.

Other Examples from West Persia and Anatolia

A group of rugs with hexagonal motifs clearly derived from kilim forms has been the subject of
some controversy. The rug at the left, with nearly all of its field
done in offset knotting, would seem to be from western Persia. Some
related rugs
with this design have single heavy wool wefts between rows
of knotting, and also have overcast selvages -- features rare in
Anatolian products. The rugs have, nevertheless, been attributed variously to Persia and Eastern Anatolia. They
have sometimes been called Sanjabi or Jaf Kurd. On one example that I
examined recently,
the ends were finished with obliquely wrapped bands. (See the End
Finishes Project, Obliquely Wrapped Bands
for a rug belonging
to Allan Arthur.) The finish on the piece shown at the left may be the
same; it is impossible to determine without a closer look.

Offset knotting in the rug's field. These
motifs are copies of kilim designs with narrow pattern units, and are made entirely with diagonals. [Auctioned on eBay, June 2001, Number
1438510017. Said to have an all wool foundation, with 25 symmetrical
knots per square inch.]

A rug in the Vakiflar Museum, Istanbul (No. 169 D), is an early
example of the
genre represented above. It has the same
hexagonal motifs arranged in bands, but with an even more common kilim
motif in the center of each. The entire field was executed in offset
knotting. The white triangular drops along the hexagon edges in the previous
piece seem to be later additions. The minor motif used between the
hexagons, is similar to that in the Jaf bag above.

This rug has been identified tentatively by Nazan Olçer as from
"Eastern Anatolia (?), 17th century." It is Plate 59 in
Nazan Olcer et al, Turkish Carpets from the 13th-18th Centuries, Istanbul.

(On the following pages you will find other early examples of
Kurdish offset knotting.)

Another group of Kurdish rugs with offset knotting,
in a pattern sometimes dubbed "baklava design," comes from
eastern Anatolia. These are sometimes attributed to the area south of Malatya,
other times to the Sarkisla area, northwest of Malatya.
Instead of the pattern of hexagons seen above, these rugs have allover
diamond- shaped hooked medallions, usually arranged in panels, but occasionally in
continuous field arrangements. These rugs
typically have reinforced selvages and color
palettes that include a deep apricot, cochineal magenta, and deep blue
-- a palette quite different from the Kurdish rugs with hexagonal
patterning.

As with the previous examples, the pattern parts in this design are so narrow that they
could only have been articulated in pile by the use of offset knotting.
In many of these rugs, pattern detail is nearly obscured by long, shaggy pile.

Again, a parallel is found in the flatweaves widely produced
by nomads in the area -- narrow hooked medallions traditionally arranged in two wide bands
on decorated storage sacks. The piece at the left is a
rare variety of tapestry offset on paired warps. Nearly identical
patterning was produced in reciprocal brocading in the Malatya area. In each case, the
latch hook stems were composed
of pairs of two-warp offset units -- the feature imitated by the pile
weavers. In each of the structures, hooks are delineated by contrasting
outlines.

Tapestry offset on paired warps
decorates an ala çuval from
the Malatya area of eastern central Anatolia. Similar patterning was produced in reciprocal brocading. In
this example, each tiny segment was produced with about six very thin
wefts.

Detail of the Anatolian Kurdish rug [eBay, Number
1438503749, June 2001.] The back side is shown below.

In both the detail above and the
back view below, we see offset knotting throughout the field of
hooked diamond medallions. In contrast, the white undulating borders have been produced with regular, vertically aligned
knotting.

It is easy to compare the stepped motifs in the white vertical
border with the smooth
diagonal forms of the white knotted hooked medallion in the lower left. The outer vertical
border is also done with regularly aligned knotting.

An unusual Luri rug from Western Persia,
circa 1950, shows extensive use of offset knotting to shape
design elements. Here there can be no question about the
weaver's intent, as diamonds of two contrasting shapes appear in
the detail below. The knot count in this rug is balanced: it
has 5 knots horizontally and 5 knots vertically. Thus in the
right-hand diamond, diagonals incline at a 45 degree angle. By
offsetting knots in the diamond on the left, the form has been
stretched vertically. This weaver also chose to elongate the
motif in the rug's vertical
borders. Among scattered field motifs, she drew small birds,
water pitchers and even small human figures using the steeper diagonals
created by offsetting knots.

Daniel examined this Lori rug and mentioned that he found it full of irregularities: weft inlays, discontinuous
wefts, discontinuous knotting, stacked knots and overlapping knots.
Since this weaver took an irreverent and experimental approach to
the rug's execution, it is perhaps not surprising that she also
freely offset knots in her design.

In northwestern Anatolia,
reciprocal brocading was used extensively by Turkic nomads for
decorating storage sacks. Harald Böhmer, in a 1990 ICOC lecture,
pointed out striking similarities between the patterning in
Karakeçili sacks (below) and one type of knotted-pile rug with offset
knotting -- rugs like those shown in details at the right. The carpets were
knotted with offsets to exactly duplicate the storage sack motifs
produced with offset two-warp units; they were apparently produced in the
early 19th century, when the first of these nomads settled. As with the reciprocal brocade
piece and Jaf Kurd bag at the top of this page, there can be no doubt
that the brocaded designs directly inspired the pile products. Although
the diagonals are steeper in this carpet than on the brocaded sack,
offset knotting was not used for this reason. Instead, it allowed
the weaver to produce the design with identical pattern units: All through the
design each offset interlacing of two warp pairs was
represented by two offset knots.
Note: The dominant flatweave structure below has sometimes been
described as "wrapping" or soumak. That is incorrect; the
patterning is composed of interlaced supplementary
wefts. It is reciprocal brocading -- the majority of the
patterning in this case
done with two-warp units. Soumak is used only for selected
horizontal lines in the design.

Detail of a village carpet,
James Opie, Tribal Rugs, Portland, 1992, Plate 15.16.

The published version of Dr. Böhmer's
lecture appears in Eiland, Pinner and Denny, eds., Oriental
Carpet and Textile Studies, Vol. IV, Berkeley, 1993, pp.
57-66. In that paper he also shows several other examples of carpet motifs that
have derived from the brocaded ala çuval of western Anatolia.

The northeastern Anatolian sacks are discussed and shown in photos
in Pinkwart and Steiner, Bergama Çuvallari, Wesel, 1991. The
illustration here is from Plate 11.

These particular carpets were also discussed in a Turkotek
Salon, Number
31, presented by Daniel Deschuyteneer.